Team Work
To be an ocean-going scientist one has to learn how to work on a team. The chief
scientist responsible for the scientific project has the duty of bringing together the
different types of personnel: the crew, the officers, the diving group and the scientists. During ocean-going expeditions several groups are usually involved such
as the seamen, the engineers and the technical and scientific team members. It is
very important that a good relationship between the various groups be created at
the beginning of each cruise. Even if this seems to be obvious for many, it is often
difficult to set-up a cooperative environment and then it becomes easy for working
conditions to deteriorate quickly, in turn causing everyone’s life on board to be
miserable.
Creating a united team of the crew, scientists, ship’s officers, etc. is a difficult
task and few people are capable of handling this properly and doing a good job.
However, if the team is not united and motivated, there is a big risk of jeopardizing
the outcome of the cruise. The most important duty of a chief scientist is to handle
any difficult situations, such as the failure of an instrument and/or finding time for
equipment repair or any other delays that are often unpredictable at sea.
The role of the chief scientist is a difficult task because he/she has to deal with
several groups of people often coming from different institutions, all of whom are
eager to obtain the maximum amount of information from a particular cruise. It is
important for the Chief Scientist to inform the officers and crewmembers about the
cruise objectives so they don’t see their ship as being invaded by the transiting
scientists, who they might sometimes consider as being unruly guests rather then
working partners. The scientists are called ‘‘passengers’’ to distinguish them from
the more permanent crew and officers who spend longer periods of time at sea. An
experienced chief scientist often has to follow the logic of unwritten pre-established rules during the preparation of the cruise. However, it is sometimes necessary that he follow his own intuition when confronted with an unexpected
situation. For example, in order to decide on the choice of a diving site in an
unexplored region, it would be a wise idea to take into consideration all the
possible details that might jeopardize the expedition. In order to have the maximum return for a mission’s results, it is absolutely necessary to create good
cooperation between all the groups.
Communicating Scientific Results
The recognition of authorship in oceanography is always biased and sometimes
does not give credit to all the people involved in data acquisition and data processing. Scientists are sometimes politicians or businessmen without scruples, or
they could be insensitive people who ignore the needs of being appreciated on the
part of another human being. These types of authors believe the world is only
Team Work
19
To be an ocean-going scientist one has to learn how to work on a team. The chief
scientist responsible for the scientific project has the duty of bringing together the
different types of personnel: the crew, the officers, the diving group and the scientists. During ocean-going expeditions several groups are usually involved such
as the seamen, the engineers and the technical and scientific team members. It is
very important that a good relationship between the various groups be created at
the beginning of each cruise. Even if this seems to be obvious for many, it is often
difficult to set-up a cooperative environment and then it becomes easy for working
conditions to deteriorate quickly, in turn causing everyone’s life on board to be
miserable.
Creating a united team of the crew, scientists, ship’s officers, etc. is a difficult
task and few people are capable of handling this properly and doing a good job.
However, if the team is not united and motivated, there is a big risk of jeopardizing
the outcome of the cruise. The most important duty of a chief scientist is to handle
any difficult situations, such as the failure of an instrument and/or finding time for
equipment repair or any other delays that are often unpredictable at sea.
The role of the chief scientist is a difficult task because he/she has to deal with
several groups of people often coming from different institutions, all of whom are
eager to obtain the maximum amount of information from a particular cruise. It is
important for the Chief Scientist to inform the officers and crewmembers about the
cruise objectives so they don’t see their ship as being invaded by the transiting
scientists, who they might sometimes consider as being unruly guests rather then
working partners. The scientists are called ‘‘passengers’’ to distinguish them from
the more permanent crew and officers who spend longer periods of time at sea. An
experienced chief scientist often has to follow the logic of unwritten pre-established rules during the preparation of the cruise. However, it is sometimes necessary that he follow his own intuition when confronted with an unexpected
situation. For example, in order to decide on the choice of a diving site in an
unexplored region, it would be a wise idea to take into consideration all the
possible details that might jeopardize the expedition. In order to have the maximum return for a mission’s results, it is absolutely necessary to create good
cooperation between all the groups.
Communicating Scientific Results
The recognition of authorship in oceanography is always biased and sometimes
does not give credit to all the people involved in data acquisition and data processing. Scientists are sometimes politicians or businessmen without scruples, or
they could be insensitive people who ignore the needs of being appreciated on the
part of another human being. These types of authors believe the world is only
Team Work
19